1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of pants-like garments, especially those designed to be worn as dancewear or for athletic exercise, or designed to be form-fitting in the buttocks and upper thigh areas.
2. Prior Art
Pants-like garments designed to be worn for dancing, skating or exercise are often form-fitting in the buttocks and upper leg areas. Typically, comfort is a problem in that various movements of the wearer tend to cause the garment to ride up in the area of the crotch. If, in order to remedy this, the point of the crotch of the garment is lowered to provide more room, the aesthetic qualities of a form-fitting garment are destroyed as the garment now appears to be loose and baggy in the area of the crotch.
Other problems related to comfort and aesthetics result from the location of seams along the crotch in the front and back. Aesthetically, a seam located along the front of a pants-like garment tends to draw the eye of an observer toward it and tends therefore to accentuate the genital area of the wearer. Also, both the front and the back crotch seams can become misaligned with respect to the center of the body, the crotch seams moving over either to the left or to the right side of the wearer during movements. This results in a particularly unpleasing aesthetic effect as well as necessitates efforts by the wearer to straighten the seams. In addition, the mere location of a seam along the crotch of the garment often results in discomfort to the wearer. This is especially true where the wearer must sit directly on the seam.
The problems associated with locating a seam along the crotch are accentuated by the fact that such a seam undergoes severe strains and must therefore be strong. A strong seam, even when the garment is made of stretchable material, generally allows little stretch along its length which is the very place in which the stretchability of the material used could be a factor in enhancing the comfort of the garment.
As has been mentioned, one approach in solving some of the above problems has been to provide more room in the crotch, with the result that the garment loses its aesthetically pleasing form-fitting appearance. Another approach has been to sew a gusset into the crotch area. Such a gusset is a small piece of material sewn in at the bottom of the crotch. The gusset may provide more room within the garment for the wearer, but it does not essentially solve the ride-up problem in the area of the crotch, and because it is not contoured to the body in the area of the crotch, does not result in a garment which is aesthetically pleasing as well as comfortable.
Gussets or similar structures are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 453,874 issued to West, U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,047 issued to Emerson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,733 issued to Blair, U.S. Pat. No. 2,250,218 issued to Cadous and U.S. Pat. No. 1,891,884 issued to Tanner. It is not believed that these patents show a gusset or similar structure which prevents the garment from riding up.
One approach that has been tried in order to prevent ride up in the crotch area is to sew into the crotch area two concentric swatches having their stretchability directions at right angles, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,507 issued to Bregenzer, et al. This particular construction is conspicuous and tends to draw the eye of the observer to the crotch area.
The present invention takes a differnt approach in solving the aesthetic and comfort related problems discussed above, and to this end, provides a crotch piece having long tapering portions which run down the insides of the legs of the garment. Not only does the present invention solve the crotch ride-up problem and provide more comfort for the wearer but the use of the present invention provides a more aesthetically pleasing appearance and hence is suitably used in garments for dancing, skating, or exercise rather than being restricted to use in undergarments.